What separates Rudolph from the other TV wannabes? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of dozens of Christmas specials that have tumbled down our chimney over the decades. But only Rudy and a few of his friends have become treasured annual treats. Why? m The heart wants what it wants, and reason isn't always part of the equation. Still, the most popular perennials share important factors. m USA TODAY's Robert Bianco lists five, with good and not-so-good examples. A show may not need all, but without at least four, it shouldn't expect to be back for next year's reindeer games

Johnny Marks' simple title tune is one of the catchiest of them all. But Rudolph's score is a string of small gems, from Holly Jolly Christmas and Silver and Gold to There's Always Tomorrow and Island of Misfit Toys. Throw in a vocal performance by Burl Ives, and what you have is America's longest-running annual holiday special.

As with all the shows here, Rudolph is far more than just the one thing we're using it to represent. The story is charmingly odd, and the animation is a constant delight. But if that story were constantly interrupted by musical clunkers, would you love it nearly as much?

Bad:

Babes in Toyland (1986)

If Rudolph is more than just its music, this extravagantly awful TV movie is considerably less. Embraced now mostly by those who enjoy seeing Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves young and embarrassed, Babes kept the title from Victor Herbert's classic operetta but threw out most of the story and, even worse, most of the score. You get the two most famous songs, Toyland and March of the Toys, surrounded by a set of numbers by Willy Wonka's Leslie Bricusse that are almost comically bad. It's worth roaming the Internet just to hear an imprisoned Reeves crooning about "the notion of smoothing on a lotion full of soothing potions" while rubbing his girlfriend's skin.

MESSAGE

Good

A Charlie Brown Christmas(1965)What doesn't Charlie Brown have? In one ideal half-hour, you get warmth, humor, honesty, that fabulous jazz score — all combining to perfectly capture the charm of one of the most-read comic strips of all time.

Yet what sets Charlie Brown apart from even its best annual companions is the strength and enduring power of its message. Married to the cartoon's plea for simplicity and its gentle attack on commercialism is a rarity: a biblical passage, making Charlie Brown one of the only specials to make a specific reference to the religious nature of the holiday. Indeed, outside of The Little Drummer Boy, if you want Christ in Christmas, you pretty much have to turn to Charlie.

There are shows that, while entertaining, just miss the classic mark by having no clear seasonal message. And there are hundreds that repeat some tired variation on the same two themes — one from A Christmas Carol (bad man repents); the other from It's a Wonderful Life(good man learns to appreciate his worth).

Negative messages, however, are rare, which is why collectors cherish this cheerless clunker that attempts to find romance in homelessness and child abuse. Somehow, a shared love of Christmas trees is enough to bring a couple together, even when the guy discovers his girlfriend has been supporting his runaway son's choice to sleep on the streets. The message here? "Find better scripts."

Through the '60s and '70s, TV's Christmas was packed with holiday-variety specials led by talented stars (often with less talented family members in tow), including Andy Williams, Bob Hope, Perry Como and, most famously, Bing Crosby. For most of us, our memories of these shows tend to be fond but vague, with one great, specific exception: Crosby's Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth duet with David Bowie.

In part, that duet stands out because it came on Crosby's last special, which aired after his death; and in part, it's because the unexpected blending of the songs and their voices is so haunting. But the real pull, perhaps, comes from our knowledge that one generation and one musical style is making way for another. There's something unbelievably sad about it, and undeniably magical.

Bad

A Christmas Carol: The Musical (2004)

Sometimes very good isn't good enough.

On paper, this sumptuously produced TV version of the off-Broadway musical would seem to have everything going for it. The story is, of course, a classic; the score (by Beauty and the Beast's Alan Menken and Ragtime's Lynn Ahrens) is tuneful; and the cast, led by Kelsey Grammer, Jason Alexander, Jesse L. Martin and Jane Krakowski, is top-notch. Yet no one watched. Maybe it started too slowly; maybe the production numbers went on too long; maybe the cast didn't quite blend. Or maybe it was just missing that certain know-it-when-we-see-it spark that turns casual viewers into lifelong fans.

If we all know what it means to be a Grinch, that's thanks to this ideally done adaptation of Dr. Seuss's book. Never has a "mean one" been better served, from the choice of animation genius Chuck Jones to produce and direct, to that of Boris Karloff to voice the big green guy.

Happily, the drawings, songs, voices and characters are all tied to one of the season's best constructed and most easily recalled stories. The Grinch has a clear, simple plan to destroy Christmas — and when he pulls it off, he discovers that the true spirit of Christmas is indestructible. By now, we know where the plot is going, but it's always fun watching it get there.

Bad

Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)

What do you get when you reunite the composer of Mame and Dear World with those shows' Tony-winning star, Angela Lansbury? Sadly, not enough.

You can't blame the score that, while not Jerry Herman's best, is still 10 times better than most of its Christmas competitors. And you certainly can't blame Lansbury, who is just as wonderful as her fans would expect. The central problem is the story, which lands an unhappy Mrs. Claus in New York City in 1910, where she's immersed in the burgeoning suffragist movement, the problems of inner-city immigrants, and child-labor battles at a toy factory. That's too many issues for the paper-thin plot to support — and in the end, Mrs. Claus just seems to give up and go home. While the film is charming, by the end you can't blame her.

TIMING

Good

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Talk about your strange years.

If Rankin/Bass's expansion of Rudolph's simple story has its eccentric moments, Year is eccentricity unbounded. There's a reindeer impounded as a dog, elves trapped in the deep South, and — most famously of all — a battle between brothers Heat Miser and Snow Miser that's brought to a halt by Mother Nature.

What all that has to do with Santa Claus is anyone's guess, but the show is a viewer favorite. The key is in that 1974 airdate, which is when the Big Three Networks were at their most dominant. By airing it annually for the next six years, ABC impressed it into the memories of everyone who was young in that decade. And what we love as children we tend to cling to as adults.

Magoo arrived in 1962 as the very first of the made-for-TV Christmas cartoons, a genre that didn't really catch on until Charlie Brown and Grinch solidified its hold. For a time, Magoo joined them in TV's annual rotation — but where Charlie Brown arrived near the start of the nationwide Peanuts craze, Magoo premiered as the appeal of its lead character (who made his debut in 1949) was waning. Which is a shame, because if any special deserves to be revived, it's Magoo. The animation is fairly basic, but the story is well-told; the score, from Funny Girl's Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, is one of the best ever written for the medium, and Jim Backus' shortsighted Magoo is a surprisingly good fit for Dickens' tale. It's out on DVD, so who knows — maybe its time is coming.

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